P.S. I Love You

Front cover

Download PDF (763.7 KB)
 

Copyright

Download PDF (30.5 KB)
 

Contents

Download PDF (26.6 KB)
pp. vii-viii

The Hilltoppers: Two Appreciations

Download PDF (24.7 KB)
pp. ix-xii

I was pleased to be asked by Carlton Jackson to write an introduction about Billy Vaughn and the Hilltoppers. I knew each of them personally, and we were classmates at Western Kentucky University together. I had known Billy Vaughn and played with his group before I met the other guys. ...

Introduction

Download PDF (42.1 KB)
pp. 1-8

My interest in the singing Hilltoppers goes back at least to 1986. I was at a social function one night, and Doc Livingston was in attendance. The conversation got off onto the Hilltoppers, and a guest remarked, “Somebody ought to write a book about them.” Doc pointed his finger straight at me and said, “Carlton, you write books. ...

1. "Trying" Times

Download PDF (78.4 KB)
pp. 9-28

Toast of the Town for October 26, 1952, was, as host Ed Sullivan always said, “a really big shew.” Headlining the event was veteran comedian and actor Joe E. Brown, who kept the audience chuckling by performing some vaudeville routines and playing doctor and nurse. ...

2. A Gathering of the Hilltoppers

Download PDF (82.4 KB)
pp. 29-50

In 1952, Bowling Green, Kentucky, was a sleepy little college town with some twenty thousand residents. Added to this number were the sixteen hundred or so students who attended Western Kentucky State College on top of the big hill.¹ ...

3. "Mixed-up" Hilltoppers

Download PDF (88.8 KB)
pp. 51-74

One of the songs the Hilltoppers put “in the can” (that is, recorded to be released periodically) was a snappy little love song, “From the Vine Came the Grape.” It dealt with a lover being back with his girlfriend on the island of Capri. To the delight of listeners everywhere, ...

4. "Blimey, We've Gone Limey"

Download PDF (88.3 KB)
pp. 75-98

“You probably know that we’re leaving for England, and we really are looking forward to this trip,” the Hilltoppers wrote to the readers of that “wonderful journal,” the national fanzine Hilltopper Topics. “Only You” had almost gone off the charts in mid-1956 in England, where a few newspapers described it as a “rock ’n’ roll ballad.” ...

5. Hilltopper Tops

Download PDF (63.0 KB)
pp. 99-112

Here’s a “letter” that showed up in one of the Hilltoppers’ fanzines: ...

6. The Hilltoppers at Home and Abroad

Download PDF (78.3 KB)
pp. 113-132

If, as some reviewers had it, the Hilltoppers’ fortunes were declining in the late 1950s, the group paid scant attention to them. Their performance schedules for the period of March–December 1957 were nothing short of amazing. One of the first to realize how busy the group would be was Bobbie Ann Mason, the national president of the Hilltopper fan club. ...

7. Latter-Day Hilltoppers

Download PDF (90.1 KB)
pp. 133-156

The original Hilltoppers (Billy, Jimmy, Don, Seymour) may have gone their separate ways by 1963, but one place always remained common ground: Kentucky, particularly Bowling Green and the campus of Western. Each came back at every opportunity. ...

Acknowledgments

Download PDF (20.5 KB)
pp. 157-158

Many people helped me to research and write this book, and I am grateful to each and every one of them. At Western Kentucky University, history department chair Richard Weigel read the manuscript and made helpful improvements. Department secretary Marsha Skipworth ...

Annotated Discography

Download PDF (100.9 KB)
pp. 159-186

Notes

Download PDF (82.0 KB)
pp. 187-204

Bibliography

Download PDF (37.5 KB)
pp. 205-209

Index

Download PDF (144.4 KB)
pp. 210-226

Plates

Download PDF (6.1 MB)